Why President Macron picked centre-right conservative Edouard Philippe for PM
In choosing Edouard Philippe, President Emmanuel Macron hopes he has ticked almost all the right boxes, writes Sky's Mark Stone.
Monday 15 May 2017 18:21, UK
Bearded and standing at over 6ft, the new French Prime Minister is an experienced politician, a keen boxer and a one-time author.
Ominously perhaps, in 2011 he published Dans L'Ombre (In The Shadows), a political thriller with intrigue and betrayal at its heart.
But , President Emmanuel Macron hopes he has ticked almost all the right boxes.
Mr Philippe is young-ish at 46. He has political experience, both in the provinces as the current mayor of the northern port town of Le Havre, and in national government having worked for previous president Nicolas Sarkozy.
And most importantly he is a member of the centre-right conservative party The Republicans.
He is a centrist conservative at the liberal end of the conservative spectrum.
That sits well with President Macron's liberal leanings and it means that he can, the plan goes, .
That is crucial because if Mr Macron is to be anything but a lame duck president he needs a working majority in the National Assembly (the parliament). As things stand he has plenty of candidates - but no MPs.
Mr Macon has found it relatively easy to persuade wounded socialist politicians over to his movement since he was elected.
But on the right of politics, it's proving much harder.
While the Socialists are in disarray after five disastrous years in government, the Republicans are in pretty good shape.
Many believe the only reason they didn't was because of the corruption scandal surrounding their candidate, Francois Fillon.
Mr Philippe is a close ally of former prime minister and one time candidate for president, Alain Juppe.
When Mr Juppe lost out to Francois Fillon in the Republicans candidature selection, Mr Philippe switched to support Mr Fillon, but then ditched him during the scandal surrounding Mr Fillon's wife.
Mr Macron had previously said that he has wanted a woman as his PM.
But reacting to speculation that Mr Philippe had been chosen, an En Marche spokesperson said that the two know each other well and have a mutual respect for each other's honesty.
It's not clear why there was a delay of several hours before the announcement was made that Mr Philippe had been chosen.
It perhaps suggests some disagreement about which, or how many conservative politicians Mr Philippe would be able to bring with him.
On Brexit, Mr Philippe hasn't said much, except for a brief interview in the hours after the referendum vote.
"We have entered a zone of complete unknown... Cameron has trapped himself with this referendum story, and I think he regrets it. Nobody knows much about the negotiations yet so we are entering a huge period of instability," he said in June 2016.
"All we know is that over the next two or three years, there will be a big phase of instability."